AOL Finally Ends Dial-Up… Wait, That Still Existed？! - Error Code Show

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Things that you didn't realize still existed

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but for those of us and again, we're talking

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about my mortality again, right? You're all gonna

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remember this Are you doing some are you farting

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right now? You've got mail. The iconic dial -up

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sounded, you've got mail. That's right, folks,

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into the stuff that you did not realize still

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existed. AOL is ending its dial -up internet

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service. That's right at the year of our bug,

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2025. AOL was still running dial -up internet

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service right now. And they had over 160 ,000

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customers in America. that were using dial -up

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internet service. For anybody that grew up in

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early internet days, that dial -up noise and

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the, you've got mail, it's iconic, okay? It was

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cultural zeitgeist thing, right? But AOL has

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announced that they're finally, after 31 years,

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right? 1994, when their first dial -up had full

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internet connection, They are finally turning

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off their dial -up internet service on September

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30th. And I know we're kind of joking about this,

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but in all seriousness, there are many rural

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places in America where dial -up is still the

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only way you can get on the internet, right?

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Because they don't have cable internet, and they

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don't have DSL, they don't have fiber or any

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of those lines run. Also, what are all the grandmas

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going to do? Back to joking. Jay. Two questions

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for you. First off, were you surprised to hear

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that AOL still had dial up internet? Because

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I know I was. And also, what are your thoughts

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on them finally killing it? One. Yeah, I was

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very surprised. And then second, I was surprised

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at the amount of people that are still on dial

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up. Like, I don't understand. You know, I always

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hear like crazy stories about like Spokane, maybe,

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you know, out there like east of the Cascades,

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like, you know, people have to use dial up. I

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don't know. But now this is this is crazy. I

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thought this thing died a long time ago. So did

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I. So did I. There's a part of me that's kind

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of happy that it's existed all this time again

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for the the you've got mail and that that very

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iconic AOL instant messenger noise, right? Okay,

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because that AOL, especially when I was a teenager.

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Oh, boy. Now we got to go help people. These

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these noises that AOL instant messenger had.

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Right. Oh, wait. Let's do it again You're jumping

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for your thing looking to see who got on oh somebody

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Oh, yeah that door opens down Those those those

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im noises, okay Man that was just a thing Why

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would people again most people are you still

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using dial -up to answer chat question from YouTube?

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Because that's all they have like legit. That's

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all they have out there in some of these really

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rural areas like That's what they've got. They

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can still use dial -up internet So I can't it

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just blows my mind I think everybody had AOL.

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Did you have AOL when you were growing up at

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all, Jay? I actually did not. I didn't have a

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so my first computer. I was it was like. 2008.

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Oh, OK. Yeah, I. We were poor. And I. I was like

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very much like kind of an athlete growing up.

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So I started playing soccer second grade. I wasn't

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allowed to drink soda. I couldn't eat fast food.

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I couldn't eat junk food that much. It's kind

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of like a novelty. So I was like kind of behind

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the curve behind the curve. Now, when I was 14,

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I got a job and I think when I was 15, I started

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buying like my own like console games and everything.

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So I bought like Internet. I paid for Internet

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like around. When I say like 16 for like Xbox

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Live, literally, that's all it was for. So so

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yeah, I never had like any of those. Yeah. Back

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in the olden days, we didn't have a well instead.

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Well, we had BBS's and everything was dial up.

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Oh, God. Okay, geez. Again, for an entire generation

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of 90s kids, this was absolutely iconic. Again,

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I'm amused that AOL still exists, and AOL...

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They're finally getting rid of it. That's amazing.

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Uh, we wish you luck in the future aol and everybody

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who's losing their internet for the end of dial

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-up. I'm sorry Uh, oh, yeah now people bring

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up other ones. Yeah, so aol was there then there

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was prodigy was the other big internet service

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and compuserve right and The other thing that

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was iconic about aol and and anybody who remembers

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this is aol used to send out disks right Um They

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would send you discs in the mail, right? And

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you can still buy them on eBay. Oh Here we go,

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this is the one I want because this is the one

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I remember They would send this to you in the

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mail Right and like just pop in this disc and

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you're online Right and they'd send it there'd

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be like a little flyer in there because back

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then you paid for it by the hour You're bought

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your service by the hour and so you pay a rate

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and you'd be like 50 hours a month and Then any

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hour past that you had to pay an additional charge

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and so they they'd hit you with these discs,

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right? That they would just mail out like junk

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mail, right? Floppy disks and eventually we figured

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out how to use them for other stuff And they

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would send you these discs in the mail and you'd

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be like cool 53 hours click You know, and it

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was that was how they grabbed you was was these

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discs they did eventually upgrade to the CDs

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right I I would get a lot of those for some weird

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reason like all the time I would get the CD roms.

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Oh, here we go Here we go 500 hours free on America

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online 5 .0 right Here's your free disc with

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your five hours of free you've got pictures instant

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messenger microsoft internet explorer 5 .0 built

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in there you go um so so stop this one's gonna

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go a little longer there is a part of me that

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misses that version of the internet That was

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the absolute fucking Wild West and it was new

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and so different right and I Don't know if it's

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just nostalgia in my head But I want to say that

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that internet was less toxic right because I

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think everybody was just so fucking excited to

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be there Right. It was like fucking digital Disneyland

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right And I wonder if that's just me or if that's

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Like something that other people feel as well

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like The internet back then just wasn't quite

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as crap like because now it's like in many ways

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we covered here on this show a toxic fucking

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wasteland Right. Um, I mean, what do you think

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do you think it's just progressive? We've we've

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taken it for granted now I Think they actually

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covered this on the Twitter documentary I'm pretty

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sure it was Twitter where they kind of mentioned

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they noticed like when memes started becoming

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a thing and like people really like realizing

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that you could hide behind the internet and you

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can make very insane inappropriate jokes that

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you would never say out loud in your day -to

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-day life make a meme out of it throw it on the

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internet and then like thousands of people would

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laugh and like it and whatever. And it became

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like a very toxic like it just kept going and

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going because I if I recall correctly like Twitter

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had a very like we're not going to take anything

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down stance. So they just let everything happen.

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But yeah, so I would say I mean, I was not a

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part of this Internet that you speak of back

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in the day. But it does make sense. And based

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on that like documentary, I would say, yeah,

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probably, probably a lot less toxic. I don't

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know. I just you guys also had to wait like an

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hour for like. Titties to load, evidently, so

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well, you had ASCII art porn, and for those that

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want to do it, you can go ahead and Google that

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on your own. I'm not going to put it up on my

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stream. OK, but ASCII art. Porn was a thing,

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right? And if you know what ASCII is, you will

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understand, right? And that would load real fast.

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I guess, I'm trying to, there was just times

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that we just didn't use it for that or you were

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just, you were so used to it that you just didn't

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care. You know what I mean? Like it just didn't

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matter. Right, and I think some people in the

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chat are actually googling it right now going

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oh Yeah, I don't know I don't know I find it

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very Interesting I I will say So when I was in

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high school I had a myspace and I would always

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like have to go to my friend's house to like

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update my myspace. Oh, yeah, and I will say that

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I do really miss like the MySpace days like it

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seemed so much better than having Facebook on

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your phone and like what Facebook has evolved

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into currently. Like I remember when everyone

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was switching to Facebook and I was like Facebook

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sucks. Like I want to just like continue using

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MySpace. So yeah. I do miss like the MySpace

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days. My only complaint about MySpace, my biggest

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complaint about MySpace was when I go to somebody's

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page and I wouldn't be expecting it. Like you'd

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load someone's page in and there would always

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be that like three or four second delay. And

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then all of a sudden you'd get blasted with some

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song that they had on their playlist right on

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their MySpace page. You're like, Oh my God, what

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are you listening? Pause. No, stop it. And half

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the time I was like, what in God's name was that?

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Okay. Oh God. And some of them, some of y 'all

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went a little nuts with your HTML on your MySpace

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page and I couldn't read your page anymore. Like

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I was just like, I don't, the color scheme you've

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picked has made this completely unreadable. No

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idea what's happening here. Yeah. I don't know.

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I miss it. I do appreciate the fact that you

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could customize to that level. I think that's

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something that's missing from Facebook and Twitter

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and all those was that that personalization that

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you could do with MySpace. Because Facebook went

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all like hyper clean and like very white. So.

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Yeah. It'll it'll be it'll be interesting to

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see what what the next one is. I keep we now

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have TikTok. Right. We've moved to tiktok now

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has become one of the dominant ones. I'm curious

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what the next really big one's gonna be after

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tiktok. That's That's the one um Yeah Yeah, i'm

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curious what's gonna come next um And we've talked

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about this before